How To Save Zinnia Seeds?

As zinnia produces many seeds per plant, do you know how to save zinnia seeds? A packet of zinnia seeds is cheap but saving zinnia seeds from your current zinnia plants is cheaper than free! In today’s post, I will teach you how to save zinnia seeds from flowers. Zinnia is one of the quickest and easiest flowers from which you can harvest and save seeds. Luckily, you can save your own seeds from the plant and grow lots of them in your backyard. Without wasting much time, let’s learn how to save zinnia seeds that will provide beautiful flowers for years!

How To Save Zinnia Seeds?

In this section, I will show how to save zinnia seeds in detail. Zinnias are easy-to-grow flowers that have been a home garden staple for many years. These beautiful flowers come in a variety of different colors. You can save a few bucks by saving your own seeds.

You can follow these steps to learn how to save zinnia flower seeds.

1. Allow the flower to stay on the plant until they are crispy and turning brown.
2. This will give the plant time to finish ripening the seeds.
3. Make sure you wait until they are completely dry and ready to harvest.
4. Once the flower is completely dried, cut the flower from the plant.
5. Gently pull any remaining petals from the flower.
6. Now, check the base of the petals for zinnia seeds.
7. You can either leave the petals attached or pull them off of the seeds.
8. Remove all the petals so that you can pull the central flower head.
9. Now, sort through the plant material and remove the seeds from the shell/chaff.
10. Discard the plant material in your compost bin.
11. After collecting the seeds, let them dry completely.
12. Keep them on a flat open-air surface for about a week.
13. Once they are dried completely, store your seeds in a jar or seed envelope.
14. Make sure you label the seed packet with the year and the variety.

To store your zinnia seeds, you can either use paper envelopes or mylar bags for long-term storage. Before saving the seeds, make sure you know whether your zinnias are open-pollinated plants or hybrids. The seeds collected from hybrid plants won’t grow true to the parent plant. While seeds from open-pollinated plants will grow true to the parent plant. This means they will grow to look the same as the parent plants.

Now, you must be wondering how to separate zinnia seeds from the chaff. Seed and chaff separation is important in order to process and eat the seeds. You can easily separate the seeds from the chaff by using your fingers or a spoon. Simply touch the shreds of the seeds to separate them. Or else you can also blow on the seeds to separate them from the chaff.

You can keep on reading further to learn more about how to save zinnia seeds for next year.

Save Zinnia Seeds To Plant Next Year

One of the most important steps in harvesting zinnia seeds is saving them properly after drying them. You can follow these steps to learn how to save zinnia seeds to plant next spring.

1. Before you start, allow the flower head to dry completely.
2. When the flower is dark brown and dry to the touch, it is ready to harvest.
3. Once the flower is dry, cut or pull it off the plant.
4. Spread paper towels on a flat surface to gather the seeds.
5. Swing the seed head and hit gently to release the seeds.
6. You can also rub it between your fingers to release the seeds.
7. Repeat this step till all the seeds are removed from your dried flowers.
8. Now, spread out the seeds and let them air dry for a few days.
9. After they are dried, store them in a paper envelope or jar.

If you store it in a cool, dry place out of the direct sun, it will stay fresh for three to five years. Make sure you use separate jars/envelopes to store multiple zinnia seeds. 

The same will be the same when it comes to how to collect and save zinnia seeds. However, you can harvest zinnia seeds after frost so that you can grow incredible zinnia flowers all over again.

What Do Dried Zinnia Seeds Look Like?

Dried zinnia seeds are small, arrow-shaped, and black in color. The zinnia seeds bought from the plant store will also look the same. The chaff of zinnia seeds is light brown or tan in color.

Are Zinnia Seeds True To Color?

Yes, zinnia seeds are mostly true to color. The seeds will grow to produce true-to-color flowers only if the flowers and breed are of the same variety.

How To Tell If Zinnia Seeds Are Good?

To determine if your zinnia seeds are good, simply pinch the seed between your finger and thumbnail. Now, if the seed feels hard, your zinnia seeds are in good condition.

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FAQ

Can You Save Seeds From Cut Zinnia Flowers?

Can you save zinnia seeds from cut flowers? If the flower has dried out on the plant, yes. If the flower was cut while in full bloom and dried out after being on display, then there’s a possibility that the seeds were not yet mature and ready for saving.

How Do You Preserve Zinnia Seeds?

Label each envelope so you remember what’s in it. Place the seed envelope in a lidded glass jar and store it in a cool, dry place out of direct sun. A closet is ideal. Once the danger of frost has passed for the next growing season, you can sow your seeds outdoors.

What Part Of The Zinnia Flower Do You Save For Seeds?

Petals

You can remove the petals and store your seeds inside seed-saving packets, or you can leave the dried petals attached and simply store the intact blooms in a Ziploc bag. The cool thing about this is when it’s time to plant, you’ll be able to tell what color the future blooms will be by the dried petals.

How Long Can You Save Zinnia Seeds?

Zinnia seeds remain viable for 3 to 5 years.

Conclusion

In the above post, I’ve discussed how to save zinnia seeds in detail. You never have to purchase zinnia seeds again as these seeds are easy to save. By saving the seeds from a few zinnia flowers, you will end up with dozens of seeds from each flower head. Once your zinnia blossoms, allow it to dry until brown, and then remove the seeds. Make sure you avoid watering the flower before harvesting seeds. Due to an increase in moisture level, it may take more time to dry the seed heads. By learning how to save zinnia seeds, you can easily store and plant your zinnia seeds!